Biographies, stories, facts, photographs. British band "The Who"

(b. October 9, 1944) took place in 1959 in the ranks of the jazz band "The Confederates", with the first of the guys playing the banjo, and the second - the French horn. A couple of years later, their future partner Roger Daltrey (born March 1, 1944) made a self-made six-string and organized the skiffle group "The Detours". After some time, John joined the team as bassist, bringing Pete with him, who got the second guitar. At that time, the band also included vocalist Colin Dawson and drummer Doug Sandom, but already in 1963 Roger took the microphone for himself, and Colin was kicked out the door. With the change of frontman, The Detours have evolved into an active live band, specializing in R&B and Rock and Roll. For about a year the quartet played in pubs, clubs and dance halls, and in February 1964, at the suggestion of one of Pete's friends, the group was renamed "The Who". Sandom soon left, and from April 1964 the installation was occupied by the maniac drummer Keith Moon (b. 23 August 1946).

At the same time, the ensemble was supervised by a fan of the mod movement Peter Meden, from whose submission the sign changed to "The High Numbers". When the single "I" m The Face / "Zoot Suit", released under his direction, flopped, Keith Lambert and Chris Stump took over management. They gave the quartet back the name "The Who" and gave their wards a strong promotion, flooding London with prospectuses promising "maximum rhythm and blues." Meanwhile, at one of the concerts, an interesting incident occurred: Pete was swinging his guitar violently, accidentally hitting the ceiling with it and breaking it. Out of frustration, he smashed the instrument to pieces, and on the next performance he deliberately repeated this trick. Now his friend was supported by Moon, who turned the installation, and since then the pogroms have become an integral part of "The Who" concerts.

Thanks to their scandalous reputation, the team easily sold out in clubs like the "Marquee", but almost all the money raised was spent on buying new instruments. In January 1965, "The Who" made their first shot in the Top 10 with the single "I Can" t Explain, followed by the minions "Anyway Anyhow Anywhere" and "My Generation." in the UK charts he got the fifth line. If on this disc the lion's share of the material belonged to Townshend, then on "A Quick One" the rest of the musicians got involved in the songwriting process. mini-opera In 1967, the team made their first foray into America and produced the concept program "The Who Sell Out", which mimicked the broadcast of a pirate radio station.

The following year, "The Who" suffered a fiasco on the singles front with the disastrous EP "Dogs", but that failure was offset by two headlining US tours. During that tour, Pete had the idea of ​​creating a full-fledged rock opera, and his idea was realized on the double album "Tommy". The success of this monumental piece was enormous, and tickets for accompanying performances were sold out at an incredible speed. The scandalous fame of the team that left the destroyed rooms in the hotels also grew. Moon was the most adventurous, and the peak of his adventures was the Cadillac at the bottom of the hotel pool. Following "Tommy" the top ten was rammed by the magnificent live album "Live At Leeds", which became a model for all other rock live.

In 1971, the band took on a new concept project, Lifehouse, but Townshend's nervous breakdown stalled, and instead the regular Who's Next album was released. after the release of "Who's Next", the band's activity declined and its members started releasing solo albums, but in 1973 "The Who" returned with the rock opera "Quadrophenia", which settled on the second lines on both sides of the Atlantic. Meanwhile, Moon and Townshend's cravings for alcohol increased, with the result that the number of concerts dropped dramatically. Pete captured his personal experiences of this period on the disc "The Who By Numbers", which could well claim the status of his solo album. Despite the fact that the next album "Who Are You" became for the group the fastest selling release, the team was in for a serious blow. On September 7, 1978, Keith took an overdose of anti-alcohol pills and departed.

Many thought that the band had come to an end, but already at the beginning of 1979 "The Who" returned to the stage, adding to their ranks ex-drummer "Faces" Kenny Jones and keyboardist John Bandrick. However, internal problems did not disappear, and Townshend soon switched from whiskey to heroin, which significantly reduced his composing abilities. Albums "Face Dances" and "It" s Hard "received conflicting responses, and in 1982, after staging a farewell tour, the band announced their self-dissolution. , Townshend and Daltrey continued to navigate the waves of show business the ship called "The Who."

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Kenny Jones

The Who became famous in their homeland both due to their innovative technique - breaking instruments on stage after a performance, and due to hit singles that fell into the Top 10, starting with the 1965 hit single "I Can" t Explain "and albums that fell into Top 5 (including the famous "My Generation"). The first hit single to hit the Top 10 in the US was "I Can See For Miles" in 1967. The rock opera "Tommy" was released, which became the first album to hit the Top 5 in the US, followed by Live At Leeds (), Who's Next (), Quadrophenia () and Who Are You ().

The Who found a way to attract fans after Townsend accidentally broke the neck of a guitar on a low ceiling during a concert. During the next gig, fans yelled for Pete to do it again. He broke his guitar and Keith followed, smashing his drum kit. At the same time, the "air mill" appeared - a style of guitar playing invented by Pete, which was based on the stage movements of Keith Richards.

Pete's next work is also autobiographical. "Psychoderelict" follows a hermit rock star who is sent into retirement by a dastardly manager and cunning journalist. Despite a solo US tour, the new work did not receive much attention.

In early 1994, Roger took a break from filming for a grand 50th birthday concert at Carnegie Hall. The music played by the band and orchestra was a tribute to Pete's work. Roger not only invited many guests to sing Pete's songs, but also invited John and Pete to play on stage. After that, Roger and John went on a US tour performing songs "The Who". Pete's brother Simon was on the guitar, Ringo Starr's son Zach Starkey was on drums.

The same summer, a four-disc box set of the songs "The Who" was released. The MCA label began releasing remastered and sometimes remixed editions of the group. "Live at Leeds" was released first with eight added tracks and was followed by many CDs with bonus tracks, illustrations and booklets.

1996 began with the creation of a new group, The John Entwistle Band, which toured the United States. The band's new album, The Rock, was sold on the show and after the show, John met with fans.

In 1996, it was announced that The Who would get back together to play Quadrophenia at a benefit concert at Hyde Park. The show, on June 26th, combined Pete's multimedia ideas with some ideas from the Deep End / 1989 tour, accompanied by Roger's band. It was supposed to be only one show, but three weeks later The Who played a show at Madison Square Garden in New York and began a North American tour in October. They were not announced as "The Who", but performed under their own names.

The tour continued in Europe in the spring of 1997 and after another six weeks in the United States. In 1998, Pete and Roger were finally reconciled. In May, Roger presented Pete with a whole list of grievances over Pete's neglect of the group since 1982. Pete burst into tears and Roger forgave him heartily.

Concert activities (1999-2004)

On February 24, 2000, Pete posted the Lifehouse Chronicles 6-disc box set on his website. The Who's new tour began on June 25, 2000. Roger pushed Pete to write new material, which made the release of the new album a reality. Pete's attempts to promote The Who's music as soundtracks met with success when the television series C.S.I .: Crime Scene Investigation selected "Who Are You" as the main theme of the series.

Following the September 11 attacks, The Who performed at a charity festival for police and firefighters on October 20, 2001. The concert was broadcast worldwide. Unlike many of the members, whose sets were filled with importance and restraint, The Who made a real show. The band performed at the Royal Albert Hall Charity Festival in support of children with cancer on February 7th and 8th, 2002. These were the last shows with John.

On June 27, 2002, John died in his sleep at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas from a cocaine-induced heart attack. It happened the day before the band's big US tour started.

The band's fans were shocked when Pete announced that the tour would be without John. Session bassist Pino Palladino replaced him. Critics and fans alike cursed this decision as another example of fundraising. Later, Pete and Roger explained that they and a lot of other people contributed a lot of money for this tour and could not lose it.

After a year of hiatus, Pete, Roger, Pino, Zach and "Rabbit" performed as The Who at the Kentish Town Forum on March 24, 2004. On March 30, a new collection of the band's best songs, "Then and Now!" 1964-2004 "with brand new songs 13 years later" Real Good Looking Boy "and" Old Red Wine ", which was a dedication to John.

Endless Wire (2005-2007)

Daltrey, Townsend, Karin. 2005 year

In 2004, the group toured Japan and Australia for the first time. On February 9, 2005 Roger received an order from Queen Elizabeth II of Britain for his charitable work.

On September 24, 2005, Pete posted The Boy Who Heard Music on his blog. Written in 2000, this sequel to "Psychoderelict" provided the basis for many of Pete's new songs. Following the premiere of the new songs on the Rachel Fuller Show, the band embarked on a new tour that included both new and old songs. On June 17, 2006, the band performed in Leeds, the same university where they recorded their famous live album 36 years ago.

• A Quick One (December 9)
• The Who by Numbers (October 3)
• Who Are You (August 18)
• Face Dances (March 16)
• It's Hard (September 4)

Notes (edit)

Links

• Joe Giorgianni's Who Page Fan site The Who site
• The Who.info (eng.)

The doors(in lane. from English. Doors) - American rock band, created in 1965 in Los Angeles, which had a strong influence on the culture and art of the 60s. Mysterious, mystical, allegorical lyrics and a vivid image of the band's vocalist, Jim Morrison, made it perhaps the most famous and equally controversial band of its time. Even after the (temporary) breakup in 1971, its popularity did not decline. The total circulation of the group's albums has exceeded 75 million copies.

The Doors story began in July 1965, when UCLA Film College students Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek met on the beach, having previously known each other. Morrison told Manzarek that he was writing poetry and suggested creating a group. After Morrison sang his song Moonlight Drive, Manzarek agreed.

The band's creativity was well received by the public throughout its career, although in 1968 after the release of the single Hello, I Love You, there was a local scandal. The rock press pointed to the musical similarities between this song and the 1965 hit All Day and All of the Night by The Kinks. Musicians The Kinks quite agreed with the critics. The Kinks guitarist Dave Davis is known to have inserted Hello, I Love You during a live performance of All Day and All of the Night - as a mocking comment on the matter.

By 1966, the band was performing regularly at The London Fog and soon progressed to the prestigious Whiskey a Go Go club. On August 10, 1966, the group was contacted by Elektra Records, represented by its president, Jak Holtzman. This happened at the insistence of Arthur Lee, vocalist of the band Love, which recorded at Elektra Rec. Holtzman and produced by Electra Rec. Paul A. Rothschild attended two of the band's Whiskey a Go Go shows. The first concert seemed uneven to them, the second just mesmerized. After that, on August 18, The Doors signed a contract with the firm, marking the beginning of a long and successful collaboration with Rothschild and sound engineer Bruce Botnik.

The agreement came just in time, because on August 21 the club kicked out the musicians because of the defiant performance of The End. The incident consisted in the fact that a very hoarse Jim Morrison, in a drug frenzy, presented a version of Sophocles' tragedy "Oedipus King" in a Freudian vein with an obvious allusion to the Oedipus complex:

- Father

- Yes, son?

- I want to kill you.

Translation:

- Father

- Yes son?

- I want to kill you.

- Mother! I want to rape you ...

(the moment is well described in the motion picture The Doors)

Such incidents occurred until the very death of Morrison, which created a kind of scandalous and ambiguous image of the group.

In 1966, The Doors recorded their first album of the same name. However, it came out only in 1967 and was met with mostly restrained evaluations from critics. The album featured the most famous songs from The Doors' repertoire at that time, including the 11-minute dramatic composition The End. The band recorded the album in the studio in a few days in late August - early September almost live (almost all songs were recorded in one take). Over time, the debut album gained universal acclaim and is now considered one of the best albums in the history of rock music (for example, it is ranked 42 in the list of the 500 best albums according to Rolling Stone magazine). Many of the compositions from the disc became hits of the group and then were repeatedly published on collections of the best songs, and were also eagerly performed by the group at concerts. These are compositions such as Break on Through (To the Other Side), Soul Kitchen, Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar), Light My Fire (ranked 35th on the Rolling Stone list of best songs), Back Door Man and, of course, the scandalous The End.

Morrison and Manzarek directed an extraordinary promotional film for the single Break on Through, a notable example of the evolution of the music video genre.

The group's repertoire was enough for one more album, which was released in October of the same year. The Strange Days album was recorded on a more perfect equipment, and took the third position in the American charts. Unlike the debut disc, there were no other people's songs on it - all of its content (both lyrics and music) were created by the group independently. There are also elements of innovation in it, for example, Morrison's reading of one of his early poems Horse Latitudes, superimposed on white noise. The composition When the Music’s Over was then performed by the group several times at concerts, and Strange Days and Love me Two Times were widely published on various compilations.

The most famous member of the group was Jim Morrison - vocalist and songwriter. Morrison was an extremely erudite person, fascinated by the philosophy of Nietzsche, the culture of the American Indians, the poetry of the European Symbolists, and much more. In our time in America, Jim Morrison is considered not only a recognized musician, but also an outstanding poet: he is sometimes put on a par with William Blake and Arthur Rimbaud. Morrison attracted fans of the group with his unusual behavior. He inspired the young rebels of that era, and the musician's mysterious death mystified him even more in the eyes of his fans.

According to the official version, Morrison died on July 3, 1971 in Paris from a heart attack, but no one knows the real cause of his death. Among the options were called: drug overdose, suicide, staged suicide by the FBI services, which were then actively fighting against members of the hippie movement, and so on. The only person who saw the singer dead is Morrison's girlfriend, Pamela Courson. But she took the secret of his death with her to the grave, as she died of a drug overdose three years later.

After Morrison's death in 1971, the rest of The Doors tried to continue to work under the same name and even released two albums, but without achieving much popularity, they took up solo work.

In 1978, the album An American Prayer was released, consisting of lifetime phonograms of reading poems by Jim Morrison performed by the author, based on the rhythmic basis created by the rest of the group after his death. The album was met with varying responses from fans and critics. In particular, the band's former producer Paul Rothschild spoke out as follows:

"For me, what I created on An American Prayer is like taking a Picasso painting and cutting it into stamp-sized pieces and sticking them on the wall of a supermarket."

In 1979, director Francis Ford Coppola used the band's composition The End in his film Apocalypse Now about the Vietnam War, starring Martin Sheen and Marlon Brando.

In 1988, Melodiya publishes a collection of songs by The Doors as part of a vinyl disc series called Popular Music Archive. Disc "Group" Doors ". Light a Fire in Me ”was the first issue of this series. This edition is composed of compositions from the albums The Doors (1967), Morrison Hotel (1970) and L.A. Woman (1971).

After the release of Oliver Stone's 1991 film The Doors, the second wave of Dorzomania began. In 1997 alone, the group sold three times as many albums as in the previous three decades combined. And on July 3, 2001, on the thirtieth anniversary of Morrison's death, more than 20 thousand people gathered at the Pere Lachaise cemetery, where The Doors vocalist is buried.

In 1995, An American Prayer was remastered and reissued. In 1998, The Doors Box Set was released, which included previously unreleased records. In 1999, the band's studio albums were completely remastered. These versions are released as part of a set of discs